This is the personal blog of Steve Lewis - aka sjlewis55. It contains (what he considers to be) interesting and amusing fragments drawn from life. Perhaps, it is in the marginalia that we find true meaning.

Monday, 29 April 2013

I saw this while on a short break to Ripon in Yorkshire last February. It was my birthday a couple of days ago and so it is perhaps fitting to post it now - I am beginning to have sympathies with the sentiments the image portrays. Although there is a certain ambiguity here. Is this an instruction or an observation. Either way, my underlying feeling is, Why go so fast that you must be slowed at all?

Tuesday, 23 April 2013

Three years ago, because of a volcanic eruption in Iceland, British commercial flights were grounded - amid much consternation. The skies were free of any evidence of planes. I made an observation (The Heavens Are Telling). I thought of this some weeks ago when I got to the bus stop in the early morning to see the following. When I have flown, what has surprised me is how these pristine-looking white trails look much darker and dirty at altitude. Only the bird leaves the sky untainted.

Wednesday, 17 April 2013

The unexpected snows last month brought about something I would never have envisaged. The snows began during the evening of Thursday 21st March. By the morning we were more or less snowed-in. What few cars there were crept along a main road now littered with abandoned cars parked oddly half-on and half-off the pavement. The buses were not running. I couldn't get to work. (No disappointment there - except that they are sure to dock me a day's pay.) On Saturday, some neighbours generously took it upon themselves to clear our road. I looked out of the window in the afternoon to find that there was now a completely snow-free strip in both directions past our house. The only problem was that when clearing the snow, the clearers had not thought too deeply about where to put the snow. Almost all the cars along our now clear road were wedged-in. This car was stuck until the following Wednesday when the owner swept the windscreen clear with a broom, rammed into the snow banks in front and behind a couple of times with not inconsiderable force before finally extricating himself. He then proceeded to drive off at speed down the road before doing an emergency stop almost immediately. At that point the snow left the car's roof and continued another 5-10 metres.

Friday, 5 April 2013

I'm keen on right angles and various rectilinear shapes and patterns. I also came across some blank canvasses in some art shops. I had them on a wall for some years interested in what blankness might say. Latterly, they have been stored away somewhere. Over time, they have ceased to be entirely blank - they have changed colour with age. This change in colour through doing nothing and the juxtaposition of the blank canvas within the frame of the photograph (there has been no cropping), I also find interesting.